Millions of computers now being sold are equipped with both a wireless network interface for establishing a wireless network connection, and a wired network interface for establishing a wired network connection. Such computers are quickly becoming a serious security threat to secure wired networks, since they are potentially capable of wirelessly broadcasting access to the secure wired networks to which they are connected. Unfortunately, access to the wired network may be broadcast unintentionally to unauthorized and potentially undetected users outside the premises in which a secure wired network is located.
For example, when a user connects a wireless-equipped computing device such as a laptop computer to a company's wired network, unknown to the user, but not uncommonly, the wireless network equipment on the laptop may be configured to automatically try to connect to one or more default or pre-configured trusted wireless access points. However, a hacker may be able to spoof (i.e., to pretend to be) such a trusted wireless access point from a mobile wireless-equipped computer at a nearby location, e.g., in a car parked nearby. If a wireless connection is established by the user's laptop to the fake access point, the hacker may now be able to “tunnel through” the fake access point to access shared documents and resources on the user's laptop or the wired company network. Furthermore, the hacker may be able to introduce viruses, keystroke loggers and other forms of destructive software onto the user's laptop or even the company's wired network. Similarly, the user's laptop computer may be configured to automatically connect to another type of trusted wireless network (such as a mobile ad hoc wireless network), but may instead connect to a hacker network that is pretending to be the trusted wireless network, thereby exposing the user's computer and the company's wired network to unauthorized access without the user knowing it. Wireless networking thus exposes mobile computers and secure wired networks to a type of wireless phishing attack, which may be referred to as Wi-phishing.
Many existing wireless security solutions focus on encrypting wireless connections and/or establishing a robust firewall against hostile attacks. These approaches, however, do not adequately address the security risks engendered by a hacker posing as a trusted wireless access point or network.